Classic Poem

Bel boweth down, and haughty Nebo stoops!
The idols fall: the god and worshipper
Together fall together they how down!
Each other, or themselves they cannot save.
O Babylon, where is thy refuge now?
Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, meant to save,
Pervert thee and thy blessing is thy bane!
Where are thy brutish deities, Chaidea;
Where are thy gods of gold? — Oh, Lord of life!
Thou very God! so fall thy foes before thee!
First Jew. So fell beneath the terrors of Thy name
The idol Chemosh, Moab's empty trust;
So Ammonitish Moloch sunk before Thee;
So fell Philistine Dagon: so shall fall,
To time's remotest period, all thy foes,
Triumphant Lord of hosts!
Dan. How chang'd our fate!
Not for myself, O Judah! but for thee,
I shed these tears of Joy. For I no more
Must view the cedars which adorn the brow
Of Syrian Lebanon; no more shall see
Thy pleasant stream, O Jordan! nor the flocks
Which whiten all the mountains of Judea;
No more these eyes delighted shall review
Or Carmel's heights, or Sharon's flow'ry vales.
I must remain in Babylon! So Heav'n,
To whose awards I bow me, has decreed
I ne'er shall and thee, Salem! I am old;
And few and toilsome are my days to come.
But we shall meet in those celestial climes,
Compar'd with which created glories sink;
Where sinners shall have power to harm no more,
And martyr'd virtue rests her weary head.
Though are my day of promis'd grace shall come,
I shall be triad by perils strange and new;
Nor shall I taste of death, so have I learn'd,
Till I have seen the captive tribes restor'd.
First Jew. And shall we view, once more, thy hallow'd towers,
Imperial Salem?
Dan. Yes, my youthful friends!
You shall behold the second temple rise,
With grateful ecstasy: but we, your sires,
Now bent with hoary age; we, whose charm'd eyes,
Behold the matchless glories of the first,
Should weep, rememb'ring what we once had seen,
That model of perfection!
Second Jew. Never more
Shall such a wondrous structure grace the earth!
Dan. Well have you borne affliction, men of Judah!
Well have sustain'd your portion of distress:
And, unrepining, drank the hitter dregs
Of adverse fortune! Happier days await you.
O guard against the perils of success!
Prosperity dissolves the yielding soul,
And the bright sun of shining fortune melts
The firmest virtue down. Beware, my friends,
Be greatly cautious of prosperity!
Defend your sliding hearts; and, trembling, think
How those, who buffeted affliction's waves
With vig'rous virtue, sunk in pleasure's calm.
He, who of special grace had been allow'd
To rear the hallow'd fane to Israel's God,
By wealth corrupted, and by ease debauch'd,
Forsook the God to whom he rais'd the fane;
And, sunk in sensual sloth, consum'd his days
In vile idolatrous rites! — Nor think, my sons,
That virtue in sequester'd solitude
Is always found. Within the inmost soul
The hidden tempter lurks; nor less betrays
In the still seeming safety of retreat
Than where the world her sunres entangling spreads,
More visible to sense. Guard every thought:
Who thinks himself secure is half undone;
For sin, unwatch'd, may reach the sanctuary:
'Tis not the place preserves us. Righteous Lot
Stem'd the strong current of corruption's tide,
E'en in polluted Sodom; safe he liv'd,
While circumspective virtue's watchful eye
Was anxiously awake: but in the shade,
Far from the obvious perils which alarm,
With palpable temptation, secret sin
Ensoar'd his soul; he trusted in himself;
Security betray'd him, and he fell.
Second Jew. Thy prudent counsels in our heart shall live,
As if a pen of adamant had grav'd them.
First Jew. The dawn approaches; let us part, my friend,
Secure of peace, since tyranny is fall'n!
Dan. So perish all thine enemies, O Lord!
So, mighty God, shall perish all who seek
Corrupted pleasures in the turbid waves
Of life's polluted stream, and madly quit
The living Fountain of perennial grace!